The long and winding ballots: Voters to deal with plenty of paper on Election Day

Wordy proposed amendments to the state constitution have caused the upcoming ballot to bulge, increasing costs and page lengths for county elections offices. In Lee County, the ballot is expected to create bottlenecks at the polls, having reached a record length of four pages.

"By the time you open it up, it's like a travel map," said Sharon Harrington, Lee County Supervisor of Elections.

The double-sided ballot is written in both English and Spanish on 17-inch paper and will cost more for absentee voters to return through the mail, though Harrington couldn't say how much.

"Some jurisdictions that have never had more than one page are having to deal with two," Harrington said. "It's actually the whole state that's affected."

The 11 state constitutional amendments, some in full text, appear on the entire second and third sheet of the ballot in Collier County, where voters will see a double-sided, three-page ballot, said Tim Durham, deputy supervisor of elections.

Collier County faced a four-page ballot before receiving permission from the state to move a school board referendum ahead of the 11 state amendments from its space at the bottom of the last page. "It's like putting a puzzle together ... The implications are terrific for the cost of a sheet of paper," Durham said.

With bulk discounts, Durham said it will cost the county about 25 cents per ballot to send the three pages to voters. Voters will then have to pay 65 cents to return their completed ballots.

"Prior to 2010, we'd never had a three-page ballot," Durham said.

Sample ballots will go out to voters 30 days before the election, the first week of October, and absentee ballots will be mailed between Oct. 2 and Oct. 9.

Between 40,000 and 45,000 voters have requested absentee ballots in Collier this year.

In Lee County, 46,013 had requested absentee ballots as of Monday.

Early voting will take place for eight days in Lee County for 10 days before the election, from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. at all precincts.

Collier County officials are awaiting permission from the state to begin early voting the same time as Lee.

"It looks like the court will approve us going to the new plan for early voting starting 10 days before the election," Durham said.

Otherwise, Collier will begin 15 days before the election with shorter hours.

Harrington is already expecting delays at the polls come Nov. 6 given the length of the ballots this year.

"We're encouraging people to be prepared before they go vote," she said. "If you go into vote and start reading the amendments, it's not going to work."